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It was a Saturday morning and I was on my way to the grocery store with my three young children. We were all content sitting in our air conditioned car while it was nearing 90 degrees outside in the hot June sun, and our bellies were full with the big breakfast I had prepared earlier. No one was crying, and I was very happy with the fact that I left my husband at home so he could get some sorely needed sleep. Bonus wife points: me.
Anyhow, I was driving over an overpass when ahead of me I saw a woman walking quickly towards my vehicle on the opposite side of the road pushing a baby stroller with a little girl in it no older than 7 months. I was shocked and scared for her at the same time. Surely her car had broken down and she was trying to get some help, I thought. For a quick instant the idea came to me that I should try to give her a ride. That was immediately dismissed by the usual feeling of protection for my children. After all it was just me and them, and I never pick anybody up from the side of the road, NEVER. As I passed by her I started to pray for her. Right in the middle of my prayer I stopped. The feeling for me to turn around and try to help her was so strong, I felt nauseous. I absolutely could not do anything but turn around and help her. The mere thought of disobeying this request made me so overwhelmed with physical chest pain, that I knew God was more than speaking to me, he was outright telling me, Help her.
I had to drive about a quarter of a mile just to turn around to get back to where I originally saw her, but eventually I saw her walking down the side of the road as she was before, baby in tow, at a brisk pace. I slowed down, unrolling my passenger side window.
“Excuse me, I saw you walking over the over pass back there and I wanted to know if you need some help? ” I asked.
“I know” she said, “I was so scared back there.”
I could see that she was exhausted.
“I live in this hotel right here, and I just want to get my baby inside to cool off.”
Pray with her, the voice was unmistakeable, I knew it was the Holy Spirit.
But before I could ask she started in on what was going on. “Things are just so hard right now,” she said.
Tears started coming from her eyes, past the large sunglasses and down her cheeks. She kept wiping then but they were replaced by new ones. I could see that she had no front teeth, and her mannerisms were a person who had been worn out, tired, and at a point of emptiness. She needed to be refilled.
As she continued on, I sat listened, and nodded an understanding head. I wasn’t just there to do my duty. She was not a notch in my “Christian belt” so I could say I prayed for one more person today. At that moment, I was her sister, her friend. I wanted to be there for her, and her pain was mine. After a few minutes of her speaking she fell silent.
“Can I pray with you?”  I asked.
“Sure.” she said.
I stretched out my hand because she was standing behind the stroller about 10 feet away. She let go of the stroller nervously at first since she did not want to leave her baby, but came right up to the window. I started to pray whatever, I felt that the Holy Spirit told me to. After it was done, I gave her hand an encouraging squeeze, spoke to her a little longer, and then watched her walk away pushing the baby stroller towards the hotel that was only a few yards away. I turned the car back around and headed to the store.
The thought then came to me to buy her diapers and baby food for her little child.
I can’t do that. Money is so tight right now, I can’t afford it. My husband is going to kill me.
As I drove a little longer, the argument came back in my head: You have a house and food on the table. I knew that meant that I had more than that woman had, and I could most certainly share with her.
I bought the same food that I would buy my own child, organic baby food, thick wipes, and brand name diapers. If I could buy my own child these things, she could have them too.
I drove back home, and I felt truly ridiculous. What if she wasn’t there? Should I really be doing this?
I prayed, “God if this isn’t your Will then let me not find her.”
As the car approached the turn for the hotel entrance I started to get dizzy. I mean, I am getting sick to my stomach, and I haven’t eaten like I should in four hours dizzy. Excuses started running though my mind in why I shouldn’t do this. The kids and I were hungry, we were tired, etc. However, despite the hunger pangs, I pushed through it and decided that no matter how I felt, I would press through and get this task done.
Driving through the hotel was an experience. There were potholes everywhere, the rooms were mostly empty with curtains half hung on their curtain rods to reveal, mattresses pile up inside each room. I knew that it was not a place I wanted to live in.
I asked a few people I could see taking out their trash and bringing in their groceries but nobody knew who she was. Disappointed, I drove back through the parking lot and past the office of the hotel.
I could go in and ask for her, I thought.
But dragging three young children in a seedy hotel was not the picture of safety. I had to bring my husband.
He’s gonna love this, I thought sarcastically.
When I got home, I told him what had happened and that we needed to back to the hotel.
“What are you getting me into?” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. It seems that whenever I follow God with what He wants me to do, my husband gets pulled into it.
We ended up driving back about an hour later, driving through the hotel parking lot, and did not see her. My husband knew he had to go into the office.
I stayed in the car with the kids.
There was one person who was already at the counter, so my husband had to wait his turn. I could see him through the window pacing and looking around. I was almost afraid he was going to get irritated and come out, but he stayed, and waited his turn. Thank goodness he had to wait, because another gentleman came in a few minutes after my husband and ended up helping us out. After my husband explained to the person in the office the situation, both the office person and then gentleman that walked in after my husband figured out who it was. While my husband was telling the story, a woman drove up with another woman in the passenger seat. The passenger got out walked in the office and dropped something off.
Must be one of the cleaning ladies, I thought.
She came out a few minutes later, looked at me, and smiled. She got in the car and spoke to the other woman quickly, and then they both looked at me. At that moment they both smiled, wide beautiful smiles. They were spanish, and were not born of this country, but I could see that they both understood that I was doing something good. Something that they don’t get to see every day in that neighborhood. It touched their lives even though the physical gift was not for them.
The office rang the room and her husband picked up the phone. He told the office person to leave the stuff at the front and they would pick it up later.
“I tried to get them to come up,” said the office worker behind a bullet proof glass window.
“That’s okay, that is not what we are here for,” said my husband.
It was no strings attached type of giving. Out of Love expecting nothing in return.
My husband got in the car after it was all done, and smiled. I never expected to see her again, but am so thankful to have met her.

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